2019: The Electric Company Returns
by WorldsWorthWords
Summary: New York City is in desperate times, and even darker threats are looming on the horizon. After Jessica Ruiz returns to Earth after an extended mission in space, she must reunite the Company, and together, they must heal the city and brave the oncoming storm. An epic story to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Electric Company's 2009 incarnation.
1. Prologue

**[Author's Notes: Hello, whoever reads this. To celebrate TEC's tenth anniversary, I have launched a story bigger than any fic I've written before. I wanted make this an epic, and I do hope I succeeded.**

 **Most of the characters in this story are not owned by me. Future chapters will have more detailed disclaimers (oh, goody!)**

 **As a warning, this story will incorporate other TEC stories on the site, not just the TV show. I will do my best to make sure everything is nice and clear by itself in this story, and keep it unnecessary to read the others in order to enjoy it, but just heads-up. My previous TEC story "Amabassadoring 101" will be particularly drawn upon, so you may want to go read that to appreciate certain parts of this one (it's short, don't worry).**

 **Happy reading, friends]**

* * *

 _-Prologue-_

* * *

Here, dear readers, are your five words.

The "Media" is communication between everyone, in a city, state, country, planet, galaxy, or universe.

"Censorship" is when someone stops someone else from saying something, particularly in the media.

"Control" is when you have the ability to make someone or something else, from a single person to a whole planet, do whatever you want. Some people enjoy control. Some people enjoy control too much. Censorship is one form of control.

The "Past" is everything that happened before right now. You can't control the past, because it's already happened.

The "Future" is everything that hasn't happened yet, but will. The future, oftentimes, can be controlled.

Those are your five words, dear readers. Watch out for them in the tale you are about to read.

* * *

The pair of hands opened the book. The book's pages were well-worn, as if read multiple times. The hands were pale, inhumanly so.

The hands turned the pages until they found the particular page they were looking for, and the owner of the hands began to read.

" _Out of all the prevailing mysteries of our world,"_ the book said, " _few are as compelling and as widely studied as the Power, and the fascinating individuals who wield it. As far back as humanity remembers, there have been those who have used mysterious influence over symbols and ideas to shape the society around them, usually by altruistic helping, but occasionally by acts of mere selfishness and petty greed._

 _Certain cave paintings depict handprints with multiple, smaller symbols inside of them. Archaeologist theorize that these may be evidence of the first ever Power-users, their hands being able to create symbols in the air instead of on cave walls._

 _The evidence is a little less ambiguous by the time of ancient Egypt, as there are several paintings and scrolls describing "The Children of Thoth" who used magic to make hieroglyphs move through the air. They were said to have gotten their power from Thoth himself, the god of writing and magic, and were respected by all, even the pharaoh._

 _Wherever there was language and the written word, every country and every time period, there were Power-users. In most places they were accepted as a helpful part of their specific societies, although not always. In Medieval Europe, for example, many were accused of being witches and in league with the Devil. Historians have speculated that there may have been a correlation between the Power-user persecution of this time and the fact that most of the population could not read. Attitudes toward them began to soften, however, when they proved to be helpful during the Black Plague, and saved many lives._

 _While most people are already familiar with Power-users' abilities to conjure words and manipulate language, and that there are harmful users as well as helpful ones, (a rather infamous fact, despite the rarity of such individuals), there are other important elements to the phenomenon._

 _In most reported cases, groups of Power-users will often have what experts on the subject refer to as "Stewards". Stewards are individuals who, despite have no apparent Skills, are often instrumental in helping the group behind the scenes. It's a fair comparison between a Steward and a manager for a modern rock band. Stewards will typically be connected with an establishment that the entire group shares, such as a meeting place, and will often be a source of information. The Stewards are one of the least-studied features of the Power, and further investigation of them may yield much information._

 _Another, even lesser-known feature of the Power is the "Source Theory". According to ancient teachings about the Power, there are deposits of pure, raw Power scattered all over the world. Although they are hidden, the theory says that these Sources give the Skills to people who live near where the Source is hidden, and that teams of Power-users will form around the hidden location as a result. While no Source has ever been scientifically recorded, there have been plenty of eyewitness accounts and supporting evidence. There is a rumor that the Rosetta Stone was inadvertently rediscovered during a Source search, but no strong evidence supporting this claim has come to light as of this writing._

 _There are many known groups of Power-users in the modern world, including the River Runners of Paris, France, the Electric Company of New York City, USA, and the Tower Sentinels of Hong Kong, China. There are possibly even more groups that are undocumented and undiscovered, out there in the world, doing their part to keep the vibrant pulse of language alive, and we can only hope that they continue to do so as our world hurls more and more into the great unknown that is the future of the human race."_

The pale fingers absentmindedly traced along the passage about Sources, over and over again, as if invisibly underlining them. Eventually, the hands closed the book and held it up, until it was on the same level as the cold, cold smile of the holder.


	2. Destination: New York City

_-Destination: New York City-_

* * *

Jessica Ruiz was starting to get annoyed by the sound of her own shoes clomping on the steel floor, but she couldn't stop pacing. She didn't even really need to look where she was going anymore; she knew the corridors of the spaceship completely by heart. They had always reminded her of the hospital, so white and sterile and metallic.

Right now, pacing was all she could do. None of the usual ways she had killed time travelling through space these past three years would cut it now: she'd beaten every console game, she'd read all her _Mighty Bright Knight_ comics a zillion times, she could harmonize every single stray note from all of the musicals and albums she'd brought, and both the gym and the dining area were closed during atmosphere re-entry. As little as she enjoyed just pacing around, it was all she could bring herself to do.

She glanced up to see a Skeleckian attendant walking past her back down the corridor. She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, uh…"

The attendant gestured to his nametag, which said "Alan Pufferduffsikon".

"…Alan, right, do you know how long it will be until we land on Earth?"

"About an hour, ma'am. And by the time we arrive, it will be dawn in New York City, so we will have a sunrise to greet us!"

Jessica grinned. "That's nice!" Alan grinned back and continued on his way down the corridor.

After he'd left, Jess's grin turned to a frustrated grimace. An hour! After three years, Earth was so close she could taste it, and she had to wait an hour!

She remembered when she first left, that strange combination of sadness and exhilaration as this very ship had taken off from the new spaceport in New York City, taking Jessica to the Darlef Nebula and away from everything that defined her entire life. Ever since then, for three years she had been travelling between the nebula's planets, assisting, in her capacity as an ambassador from Earth, the people of Skelecki in their ongoing attempts to make peace and establish trade between the systems.

Going on that extended mission would never have been an easy decision, but circumstances seemed to conspire to make it as hard as it possibly could be. For a long time, Jessica had resigned from being an Earth-Skeleckian ambassador after the incident at the Eldrimk Intergalactic Assembly station. She, along with the rest of the Electric Company as guests, had gone to assist the Skeleckians in negotiations between them and a neighboring planet, Curtanza. After a harrowing incident, it came out that some of the Skeleckians had a device which could control the Company's powers if they thought necessary, which the Curtanzil President had taken and used. They'd stopped him and everyone had been alright, but the damage was done.

The Company, especially Jessica, had seen a side of Skelecki that they could never unsee again. Even though no Skeleckians she knew personally had been involved in the device scheme, she still had come to think of the whole planet as like a family of close neighbors. It had still felt like a betrayal by a close friend.

Jess thought it was a serious possibility that she would have never gone back to being an ambassador if it weren't for her Skeleckian friends on Earth; being there for her and the others, their same old friendly and good-hearted selves, serving as a reminder that, whatever had been done, there were still Skeleckians who were honest and kind and would never betray those whose trust they had earned. Even so, it still took a couple years for Jessica to let herself be notably involved with the new Skeleckian regime, which had quickly swooped in to replace the old one after the Eldrimk scandal.

But the past was all it was. She had eventually agreed to go on this extended series of diplomatic missions, for the good the galaxy, and it had gone as well as it could have. Three years of adventure, three years of exploration, three years of negotiation, three years of mind-numbing boredom, three years of excitement, three years of danger, three years of loneliness, three years of meeting new friends, three years of yearning for her old ones. Even after so long a time doing it, traveling through space from planet to planet didn't feel like her true, actual "life". New York City, the Electric Company, her family, that was her life, and even the three years across the galaxy hadn't made it feel any less vivid or close to her. The only connection she'd had to back home was the ability to infrequently send and receive video messages to Hector and the others at the diner, but due to the nature of space travel none of the messages, coming or going, were in real time. It was basically video versions of snail mail, but it was all she had, and she treasured watching each one and whichever friends were able to appear in it.

Her restless mind envisioned everyone who she would see when the ship landed. She saw Hector smiling and wrapping her in a bear hug. There was a twang of guilt with the image, because when Jessica thought of her family, Hector always came to mind before her parents. It wasn't comfortable, but it was a fact. And now she was thinking of her father's bushy, lively eyebrows and her mother's dimpled smile, and how good it would feel to squeeze them both as tight as Hector would squeeze her.

Her thoughts drifted to visions of her friends. Lisa would probably make a beeline to hug Jess as soon as she saw her, most likely bumping into someone or knocking something over in the process. Marcus would probably grin as wide as the moon and let out some gleeful incoherent yelling, and she would yell right back, and then grab him and give him some noogies. She didn't have a younger brother, but Marcus was reasonably close to one, particularly after their escapades on Prankster Planet. And Shock wouldn't say a _whole_ lot, not as much as the others anyways, but his smile would say everything needed.

And Keith… Keith. Only now did her mind go to Keith, as if it had deliberately saved him for last for dramatic purposes. What could she think about Keith now? What would she say to him? What would he say to her?

On Earth, they had been friends for a long time. Then they had been closer, for a while. And then, the offer to go on the Darlef mission, and Jess had thought she should take it, even though it would take years. They had talked about it, they had fought, they had apologized, they had made promises to each other, and they had said "see you later". It had hurt, it had hurt like anything, but it had been clean. Now, "later" was fast approaching, and Jessica had no idea what it would hold. The longing to see Keith and the dread of seeing him were unbearably intermingled.

"Jessica?"

She was knocked out of her thoughts by Olivesk Scratoriallenfishensnach, peering around the hallway corner. His smile was shy and yet somehow a bit too fake.

Jessica brushed her hair out of her face. "Hmm? Oh, hi Olivesk. Did you want something?"

"We're passing something near the Earth's atmosphere I though you might like to see."

Jess turned to follow him. "Okay, thanks."

They walked down the corridor, Olivesk whistling too loudly and too jauntily. Jessica had mixed feelings about him. He had been the Company's guide on Eldrimk, and it turned out afterwards that he had been looking the other way in regards to what his higher-ups had been doing. He did seem to be genuinely regretful, and seemed to trying to make up for it, but Jessica was still wary and a little bit resentful, even if she didn't like it. This made things horribly awkward when they were together on the ship.

They reached one of the spaceship's outer walls, with several large, round windows contrasting the blackness of space with the wall's whiteness. Olivesk pointed out of one. "I remember this place from some of your stories, I thought you might be interested in seeing it again."

Jessica peered out the window and chuckled softly. Outside the spaceship floated what looked like a giant chunk of land, as if it had been ripped right off the earth, covered in trees, mountains, and buildings, just floating serenely through the void.

"Prankster Planet." Jessica shook her head. It had been long time since she'd seen this place. Not since the Pranksters had concocted their most ambitious scheme yet. Francine had begged her mother to buy her a SpaceSpot (a recent trend where debris in space was gathered up and made into little orbiting pieces of land with artificial atmosphere, to cut down space pollution) for her birthday, and because the Carruthers seemingly had a whole orchard of trees growing money in their backyard, she'd gotten one.

The Pranksters then had a whole new base of resources to cause chaos with, and eventually Jessica and Marcus ended up having to catch the nearest space shuttle up there to rein them in. It took a while, but eventually the Pranksters got bored took their mischief back to Earth, leaving Francine's SpaceSpot seemingly abandoned.

It had been a frustrating adventure at the time, but looking back on it brought up the nostalgia for Jess. She could even see a few of the spots she and Marcus had been, though they were much farther away this time. As Prankster Planet began to pass out of sight, she noticed movement among the dilapidated buildings. No doubt a few of the robots Manny had built to inhabit the place and assist the Pranksters were still running, doing whatever it is robots do on a lifeless, ever-drifting span of land. An oddly melancholy thought.

She turned back to Olivesk. "You're right, it was neat seeing that place again." Olivesk beamed at her, nodded, and then walked away. Jessica wondered what the Pranksters were doing now? Had they matured and mellowed out some? She hoped so. As little as she would have wanted to admit it, part of her was looking forward to seeing them almost as much as her family and friends. Nostalgia is a cruel mistress.

The captain's voice came over the ship's intercom. "Attention, everyone! We are now entering the Earth's atmosphere. We will momentarily connect with a tractor beam that will begin pulling us down to the spaceport in New York City, USA. I would advise you all to make sure all your belongings are packed while we wait in Earth's incoming traffic, which should take about half an Earthly hour. Thank you."

Jessica's heart jumped up into her throat. She ran down the corridors back to her room to make sure all her things were packed, a giddy spring in her step all the while.

* * *

A little later, Jessica, with all her bags, was gazing out the central viewport alongside the ship's other eager passengers. She had said all her good-byes to her friend's among the ship's crew, and now all that was left to do was watch as they slowly descended to the ground far below. The viewports showed that it was indeed dawn, as the sun creeped over the horizon.

Looking down, Jess saw, as if in answer to the sun, the spires of New York City rising up below them. The Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Bank of America tower, they were all coming up to meet the ship, or rather the ship was going down to meet them. Home was right there. Home was in view.

Something started building up inside Jessica. It got bigger and bigger. Part of her didn't want to do it right here, and make a scene in front of everyone. The other part said _Go on, go on, you've been gone for three years, you earned this_. Jessica's voice seemed to side with the latter, as before she could stop herself her mouth opened and out came a resounding

" _HEY YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYYYYYSSSSSSS!"_

* * *

Something woke Marcus Barnes up. He yelped and rolled out of his bed, landing on all his stuff scattered haphazardly on the apartment floor. Moaning, he rubbed his head. What had _that_ been?"

* * *

Something woke Lisa Heffenbacher up. Her head flew up from the open book it had been resting on (and slightly drooled on) and immediately banged on the wall behind her. Rubbing her bruised scalp, she felt a slight embarrassment at having fallen asleep reading again. She wondered what had woken her up.

* * *

Keith Watson blinked several times and lifted his head slightly from his sleeping bag on the cold, hard floor. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, but up until just now he had been in that strange, half-awake half-asleep trance sort of area. But something had woken him up, something loud and familiar and very, very important. What had it been?

* * *

Sitting at a table in the spaceport, looking up at the incoming ships against the muted sky, Hector Ruiz smiled. He knew _exactly_ what he had just heard.


	3. Storm Clouds Gather

**Well well, an update. These characters aren't mine, by the by.**

* * *

 _-Storm Clouds Gather-_

* * *

Jessica squinted, her eyes adjusting to the morning sunlight as she, fresh out of the painfully rigorous security checks, lugged her bags and suitcase out of the inner spaceport and into the multi-windowed terminal. It was always a pain having to get used to a planet's daylight after space travel. She did her best to look around. Hector should be here, she hoped she'd be able to see him-

"Jess? Jess!"

That was him. She opened her eyes wider, and there he was.

Jessica dropped all her bags right there and hurtled right into her brother, nearly knocking them both into a passing ectoplasmic Subspacer, who garbled huffily at them. Her cheek was pressed against his chest. Even as adults he was annoyingly taller than her.

"Whoa, whoa, Jess!" Hector said, a bit of the wind knocked out of him. Jess looked up at him, and he looked down at her. "Aw, Jess…" then he frowned.

"Have you gotten shorter? I swear you were taller when you left. Did space shrink you?"

Jessica leaned back and groaned, rolling her eyes and lightly punching Hector in the chest. "Great, I leave for a couple years and my brother thinks he's a comedian!"

Hector chuckled. "So… how are you?"

Jessica paused. "Um…" she tilted her gaze up and grinningly shook her head at the ceiling, spreading her arms in a shrug. "…fantastic?"

Hector hugged her again. "Great. Me too."

* * *

Jess and Hector lugged the last of the luggage into Hector's trunk. Hector grabbed the trunk lid. "So Mom and Dad said-" -he closed it- "-that they think they should be able to get back in a couple days. They're gonna try anyway. Jules is coming with them." Jessica leaned against the car and sighed. The idea of seeing her mother, her father, and Jules again, all at once, was so tantalizing that the prospect of having to wait was almost a physical ache. But it couldn't be helped.

Hector continued as they both got in the car "They were pretty upset that they weren't gonna be here when you got back. They said they were sorry."

"Well, it's not like it's anyone's fault. I mean, the message only got here a couple days ago, they were already across the country, and I don't want them dropping everything and losing potential clients just because I'm back. I'll feel better knowing that everything is settled when I see them."

Hector nodded. "Yeah, true."

"And, hey, at least them being out of town meant they could pick up Jules. That way, we can all see each other together."

"Uh-huh. Have you called them yet?"

"Yeah, I tried while I was waiting in the inner port, no answer. Probably in a meeting or in the mountains or something. No big deal, I'll try again later." She cracked up a bit. "Moral of the story, kids: messages sent through space are unpredictable. You never know when they'll actually arrive. These are words to live by, kids, pay attention." Hector chuckled.

Hector started the car and started to drive out of the parking lot. "So, you wanna go back to my place now?"

Jessica thought for a moment. "You know, actually, if you don't mind, I kinda want to go to the Electric Diner first."

"All right, then, the Electric Diner it is." Hector turned out of the parking lot and into the crazy streets of New York City.

"And you're _sure_ me staying at your place until I find another apartment is no trouble?" Jess asked.

Hector waved his hand dismissively. "Absolutely not. Where you going to sleep, a hotel? Nah… my shampoo is better than any hotel's."

Jess snickered. "Your shampoo is better? Seriously?"

Hector winced. "It was… all I could think of."

"Hmm." Jess grinned mischievously. "Well, so long as I don't bother you and Lisa."

"Me and- oh, ha ha ha, who's the comedian now?"

Jess smirked and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Hector! It's been years, and you're still just dating."

"Hey, hey, no need to rush things if you don't need to."

Jess snorted. "Rush things. Yeah, right. When are you two gonna get married? And have some kids? I wanna be the cool aunt!"

Hector groaned. "Can we change the subject?"

"Heh heh. Okay, fine, dropping it. Seriously, though, how is Lisa?"

"She's doing good. Still working at Dooley; she's pretty happy there."

Jessica nodded. "And everyone else?"

"Well, Marcus has been going through a lot of jobs recently, trying to see what feels right, you know how it is. I think he… delivers pizza now? Yeah, a pizza deliverer. He seems to like it. Shock's still working with me at the diner, so that's going good. He actually invented a new kind of smoothie a while ago, the "Blue Spring", or something like that. I, uh, don't care all that much for it myself, but the customers think it's great, so it's all cool. And Keith… Keith's doing okay."

There was something in Hector's voice. Jessica frowned. "Is… is something wrong with Keith?"

"Oh no, no, I just don't really see him as much these days, that's all. He's living with Leo, you know, helping him out with things I guess, and it seems like they're moving around the city a lot. It's like every time I get a change to talk to him they're living in a different place."

"Wait, so what about the restaurant across town? I knew it was still having all those construction problems when I left, but even now it's not open? After all this time?"

Hector shifted in his seat as his hands guided the wheel. He looked uncomfortable. "Hey, uh… you never actually went to that restaurant, right?"

"No, Leo always said he wanted everyone to wait until it was open."

Hector nodded. "Right, yeah. So… look, maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but… I don't think the restaurant exists."

Jess blinked. "What?"

"Hey, I don't know for sure, I might be totally wrong, but… I've never heard anything about the place outside of what Keith and Leo said, and none of us ever went to it, and Leo talked about it always having some problem with the construction or other. All the recent times I've talked to Keith he never mentions it. But I dunno, maybe I've got it all wrong, maybe I'm way off base."

Jessica thought. "Wow. …Do you think Leo was in some kind of trouble, or debt, or something?"

Hector shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean, if Leo needed money, he could've just sold the whole diner to me instead of co-owning it, so I don't know how debt would be involved, but then again it might explain why they seem to move around so much… on the other hand, we're Keith's best friends, I think he'd have told us if something was wrong with his dad… beats me, like I said, I might just be totally wrong.

Jessica looked out at New York's passing walls of cement and ivory. Was that true? Had Leo lied to them? Had Keith lied to them? She shook her head. There would be plenty of time for questions later, and as troubling as these ideas might be, she was not going to let them ruin her return to home. "Well, whatever's going on, I trust Keith. Anything he did or said, he had a good reason, I know it."

"I agree."

Jess stared out the window some more. New York City was glinting in the sun, and she drank it all in. The streets, the sidewalks, the shops, the apartment buildings; she might not be familiar with the particular places they drove by, but she recognized the concrete and brick and glass and steel all the same.

She recognized the people, too. The great mix of nationalities and species New York was known for, all hurrying between themselves to cross the street or reach the bus in time.

But wait… something seemed off. Didn't add up. It took Jess a minute to figure it out. "Where are all the aliens?"

Hector looked over at her. "Huh?"

Jessica gestured out the window to the crowds on the sidewalks. "I thought there'd be more extra-terrestrials. I mean, what with the spaceport being finished I was expecting to see a lot more aliens on the streets, but it looks like there's less then there was when I left."

"Well, there has been some… suspicion recently."

"What do you mean?"

"I… look, Jess, I don't wanna dump all this stuff on you on your first day back."

"Hector, it's okay. I want to know everything that's been going on. Please tell me."

"Okay… there's just been a lot of talk about potential alien threats for a while."

"Talk?"

"There hasn't been any definite proof, at least not that has been publicly revealed, see. But there's been government warnings, security all over has been ramped up, there's rumors and paranoia everywhere... honestly it seems like there's a new potential threat from some alien group or other every week these days."

Jessica glanced out the window again. "And so a lot of extra-terrestrials…"

"…don't really walk around the big streets of New York in the middle of the day any more, yeah. I mean, there's still plenty in the city, you'll see a lot in the poorer areas, but I think most of them have picked up on how the climate isn't in their favor right now, and they're either leaving or laying low."

"But there haven't been any actual attacks?"

"Nothing proven, or big enough to lead to any actual state of emergency."

Jess bit her lip. "Hector, I can't… suspicion, paranoia… what started all this?"

Hector winced. "It's kind of been building slowly for a while, but I think the ball might have started rolling after… you know… what happened at Eldrimk."

Well, a huge scandal like that playing into everything Hector was talking about didn't surprise her. But if that was what started all this, why hadn't she noticed these things happening afterwards? Was she too caught up in her own issues, her own hang-ups over what had happened on the space station, to see what was going on in the city around her before she left? She swallowed. Guilt wouldn't help anything, not now. She had to think of other things, find out more about what was going on.

"So, are there any politicians with an agenda involved with this, or something like that?"

"I guess… if anybody is, it's Antigone Carruthers."

"Antigone Carruthers?"

"She's the mayor now."

Jess smirked and shook her head. "Of course she is. All the billionaires are going into office while I'm gone. But she never really seemed like the anti-alien type to me."

"Me neither, actually. She never really said anything about it when she was getting elected, but a little while after she started making all these statements about potential threats and trying to set up all these new security measures."

"Wow. Okay." Jess sat and thought. She cracked up a bit. "I bet Francine's somehow even worse, then, if her mom's the mayor."

Hector's brow wrinkled. "Huh… I actually haven't seen Francine for a while. Don't think I've seen her since Antigone became mayor, really. Which, yeah, is probably a good thing if I don't wanna hear her bragging about being the mayor's daughter."

Jessica nodded and looked out the window again. Things were looking familiar. The diner wasn't far away now. She had small butterflies in her stomach at the thought of actually being there again. She reached over and lightly squeezed Hector's arm. "Well, whatever else is going on, thanks for bringing me home, bro."

"You're welcome."

* * *

Antigone Carruthers rested her face in her hands and massaged it. Did her skin feel slightly baggy, or was she just imagining it? Either way, she knew the dark circles under her eyes were definitely real. It was taking all her makeup expertise to look normal before the public.

There were a couple small beeps deep in the bowels of her desk. She shook herself and reached down to unlock the drawer, pulling out a tiny, phone-like device. She held it to her ear. "Hello?"

A rough voice. "It's Joe, your mayorship. The Ruiz lady got to the spaceport, she just left with her brother."

"I see. Do you know where they're headed?"

"It's probably the guy's apartment, but I dunno for sure."

"Can you tail them?"

"I can try."

"Very good. That will be all."

"Yes ma'am."

Antigone hung up. She took a deep breath, and then dialed again.

The voice that answered was softer, too soft, too soft and too quiet. "Yes?"

The mayor wiped her brow. "It's Antigone."

"I know it's you, Antigone dear. You have news?"

Hearing her name spoken by the voice made Antigone's skin crawl. She cleared her throat. "Jessica Ruiz just arrived in the city and went with her Hector Ruiz, Joe will to try to tail them."

"I do hope he can manage to read all the big words on the street signs. But good, this is good news. Things are progressing. Have as many of your people as you can keep an eye on all of them."

"Every electrician?"

"No, every member of the sewing circle. Yes, Antigone, every 'electrician'. Any other news?"

"No." And then, the whispered question was out of Antigone's mouth before she could stop it. "She's the one you hate the most, isn't she?"

"Indeed, Antigone. Indeed she is." The voice was colder now. "Now, you keep doing what you're doing and I'll keep in touch. And don't worry, Antigone dear, I'll tell Francine how much you miss her and how hard you're working to keep her safe and healthy. Have a lovely day, madam mayor." The device went silent.

Antigone shuddered and sighed. She pressed a button on her intercom. "Shiela? Bring me a bottle of… something, I don't care."


End file.
